The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1887-07-16
PARIS AND BRUSSELS.
KING LEOPOLD TALKS BY TELE-
PHONE WITH PRESIDENT CREW.

A Meeting of Rulers Which Caused No
Anxiety in tho Diplomatic World-An
Extraordinary Impulse Given to Gam
blins-.Journalistic Enterprise.
on fca. 3 of tho present year, Il date to he
remembered hy historians the telephone was
ready to work cxlerimcntally between the
Belgian and French capitals. and l<in, Leo
poid determined upon avin, rccourscto it to
interview President Grevy. He requested
the latter to have his ears open ut the Elvsce
at 3 y. M. wlllle his ma jcsty himself would
SO to the Brussels stock exchange, which is
the terminus of the international telephone
Oh The Belgian side The appointment was
Kept, and the advantage of the tcleyonic
union Immediately became Obvious. In the
ilst place, the meeting between III" two
heads ni state 'ok place without any of the
lastl'l'"lls l'!Sraatry which such occasions
impose u'"a unfortunate rulers when they
mrr' !''''' I" face. King Leopold dispensed
WIN AL f'lr!N OF retinue and state carriages
to :" AMI confer with the French president +.
in"tri', t'' spoke in the un,lrcss uniform he
hi'! Leon Wearing at homo all the morning:
ah'i ;iS I" NJ Gl"vy, lie is said to have been
clad III lis dressing gown and slippers during
II
sovereign of the Congo free state. Besides.
There was none of the usual political fuss
about the business. Tho interview having
been arranged onlya few minutes before
haild, there had been no time for journalists
to horrify Europe 10y speculalious about fine
threatening alliance or tho terrific wars
which would result from the toto Il tctc. and
the cmperors of Russia, Austria and Ger
i,t, 4,
how convenient it would he if they coul,l
visit each other every year in the s;,n,o man
ner, instead of dragging all Enron,',
thoughts and fears with them to Krem.i.r
or SEicrnewicke. Furthermore, the coi,yer-
sation having gone on in II tone sufficiently
loud to bo overheard, any slight anxiety tho
meeting may have caused to the diplori:,tic
world was allayed within an hour when it,
became known that there had been no ,l,rl,
hrllrming of king umd president, and in fact
nothing more than such innocent talk as tho
following:
"llow is the weather on your si,!c.' "Rain-
ing, "oh! the suns out here" "Wlut n
line thing the telephone is.' "Certainly; |
hear Your majesty perfectly we'll" "Am /
catch tho sound of fly b,,zzng around yolr
exccllenry's cal'S"
Inc beginning which he Paris Brusscl, t,lc-
pllone made, when il was opened to th" public,
lweity-tllrce days later, caused many super
stltlouS lolkS to turn pale For, strange to
say, the llSt communication which tllc wires
| conveyed was tho lowS of {; terrible calamity.
| tlie earthquake i'll the south Of France md
tlle Riviera, by which so many thousands of
houses We're Wrecked and So many hundreds
| ol lives lost. However, outsiders only locked
| upon tllc circumstance ;lS onlinuus TN.
greater number of people using the intcru;,-
tonal telephone. SO far, are Stockholders and
journalists, II set OF practical persons whose
minds are generally pretty free from super
sutton, and who are too busy to he given to
disagreeablc broodngs. SO the telephone has
escaped the fate of h-sc messengers who.
when they bore evil news to the enstcrn
potcntatcs, had their unucly heads cl,oppe,l
off for the trouble they gave. Far from
suffering any punishment, tho Franco. Belgium
telephone is increasing It's popularity every
day, i'll Belgium ut least
One of its first effects has been to give mn
extraordinary impulse To gambling on tho
stock exchange. or course, our quotations
Lavc ut all times been swnycd to Il great ,y.
tent by the prices of the Paris bo,lrse, Now
that the telephone records the ilucuatou of
the French funds every minute, You may
conceive the advantage which all stock
brokers and bankers, awaiting themselves of
tins means OF communication, are able to
secure i'll their dealings 1t is just us though
certain number of betting men in New
York were kept posted every half second as
to the movements of the competitors for the
EPSON Derby while the Derby was beiur
run Brussels gamblers now follow the u,,o.
tation rnce on the Paris Io,ilsc yard pcr ward.
inch per inch. Ono after another come and
closet themselves in the tiny inclos,lrc where
the telephone apparatus is secluded within
wudded walls, between which the sound and
the person catching it are equally sticd. for
the whole OF the cabin, including the stool to
Sit upon, and the desk to lean and write upon,
covers less than square yard of space. In a
few minutes purple, persIiring faces and
hasty feet emerge from the closet, the owners
of said faces and feet holding at their pencils
end Il bit Of yet unpublished news, which may
mean thousands Of dollars won ol. lost within
the next minute or two.
On Il journalistic enterprise this interim.
tional telephone exercises perhaps II pren,rr
influence still In order to GRASP the fu,,s
we must first bear in mind that competition
of all kinds, financial, commercial or literary.
is invariably much l."cncr in small ,accs
than i'll large ones. In his description OF AZ,
election day ut Eatanswill, Charlos Dickens
shows that political feeling ran very nllri,
higher III that nut she'll of ,lti.n,i il! hlo.
London. So 1t may he said TIL; L Tia" l.lc,, for
money, for success, for news, is very much
llvclier iii Brussels than in I.Dnalon oi, Paris.
The promptless with which the Belgian c:,pi-
tai av;,ilc'l itself of the inland telephone is q
cas-" in point. AZ the present hour th" num-
Der of persons using the tolcpliol. i'll Paris is
above 5000; it is the same in London and
] 500 i'll Brussels. OF cours.,, tllcs" ti.,lirc;
viii appear riCiicliosly sSt;.! in such a prog
res hunting part of the world II, America.
have road somewhere Of there being $50 600
telephones at work throughout the Uni,ca
States, and that the c,izens of G,lava,uil,
Ecuador, have completed their telcpipni,.
communications before thinking IF paving
their streets. But then are not concerned
at present with the New World cur colnuuri-
son is between the countries of the Old
World, and it shows Belgium to he more en-
terl'rising and fond Of useful novelty than
any of its great ncishlors
AS the above figures show, the proportion
of people employing tn" telephone in London
is hardly one out OF 100; in Paris one out of
every 500 md in Brussels, where the tnle.
phone should be very much less requisite, ,e,.-
ing that the distances arc greatly shorter, it
is one out of every 900. Indeed, the I;elgiams
lave been in such hot haste to enjoy the
fruits of Edson's Invention that they have
not wasted time, as other countries have, in
cont.ving Il telephone of their own; they
adapted Edisois to their wants just u, it was,
so much so in fact that the Edison company,
established in London, is at this very moment
prosecuting the Belgian one for counterfeit
before five different Belgian courts: Brussels
Licgc, Namnr, Antwerp and I.ouv,in.-B.us
sels Cor. Kansas City Journal
Recruits for Dc Lcsscps.